Joanel

Debating what cameras to bring on florence and tuscany trip. Realize none will serve all needs.

have a canon p&S with a 4x optical zoom.
a minolta digital slr with tamron 28-300 lens (plus other lenses).

thinking of getting one of the digital 12x cameras. canon or sony.

realize none of these have wide angle. tend to like the ability to zoom in on things.

worried about bringing slr due to weight!! size, theft, having to bring extra lenses. etc.

Any thoughts?

will bring the little P & S. it is just between the slr and a possibly to be bought 12x.

GreenDragon

If you already know you like to zoom in, bring the one with the good 12x zoom. I have 10x on mine, and was very glad I brought it -- I could get amazing pics from far away, places I couldn't GET to to get a closer pic.

rkkwan

Take the Minolta but buy a wide-angle lens. Either something around 18-70mm (Minolta has one for $140, B&H price; elsewhere slightly cheaper) to go with the Tamron you already have; or just buy a 18-200mm, and don't need to bring the other lens (Minolta $450, Sigma $380, or Tamron $390).

Myer

I don't know what you should do but I'll tell you what I did and would have liked.

I've own a SLR camera for many years and have always travelled with them.

I recently went digital with a Canon 350XT (8 megapixel and excellent clean sensor). I brought over my trusty 28-105 lens that I've loved for so long.

Since I'm on vacation with my wife and not a photographer on assignment, I only carry with the walkaround lens. No lens changing.

This lens behaves a bit different on the digital with a 1.6 factor. That means the lens is in effect a 45-150 lens.

I found that on 10-15 photos I would have like more width. I never felt like I wanted more length.

The reason is that our eye sees wide angle and we expect our photos to be wide as well. Travel photography isn't a long distance competition. It's a wide angle competition.

I've learnt to carry the camera on my shoulder and across my chest to reduce the possibility of theft.

I took over 600 photos on a two-week trip to Prague, Budapest, Brugges and Amsterdam.

If you want to get an idea, check them out at:

www.travelwalks.com

all other photos other than the latest trip are cheap scans of 4x6 photos.

alan64

I gave up traveling with my (35mm) SLR and use a Canon S50. It's so much smaller & lighter I carry it much more, and I have quicker access to it (no lens changing, etc.).

Only a 3x optical zoom? Not a worry. I just shoot in RAW and I've blown up images several times over with exceptional quality (the only time it's so-so are night shots). Even w/o RAW, using the large format & super-fine quality settings gives great detail and allows one to digitally zoom in during image processing.

No wide angle? That's true, and I do miss it a little. However, I use the 'stitching' software to create nice panoramas, whether it's at the top of Notre Dame or the Pali lookout in Hawaii.

ramfan7

When I was in Italy. I was shooting a video for a travel agency. I ofcourse used large cameras. But what is very important is to bring extra memory chips unless you have a laptop to download pictures too. And with video bring your own digital tapes. Not cheap and hard to find in Italy. And as far as security. When not shooting pictures keep cameras in Backpack or hidden. Never have them visible while on Subway especially in Rome. But On trains it was fine in countryside. And a good zoom lense is important for still or video. I captured over 17 hours of video and still thought I needed more.

ira

Hi J,

I recently bought a Canon S3 IS with a 12x zoom.

It is terrific.

I also prefer being able to zoom up on details to wide angle.

An example is the statuary on the rooof of Notre Dame de Paris.